A GUNMAN killed three people and wounded three others yesterday in a shooting spree at a law school in the western Virginia foothills.

The dead included the dean of the Appalachian School of Law, Anthony Sutin, one of the professors, and a student. The gunman was named as Peter Odighizuma, a 43-year-old Nigerian student who had been suspended. Armed with a .380 semi-automatic handgun, he was overpowered by four students after the killings, which Jack Briggs, the first medical worker on the scene, described as “executions”. The attack in the town of Grundy came just a day after a shooting at a school in New York that injured two people.

The three wounded, all students, were taken to hospital where they were described as critical.

Dr Briggs said the dean had been “executed” with shots to the head, and another member of staff had been shot in the back as he lay on the ground.

He said Odighizuma, a foreign exchange student, was about to be told to leave the law school, which has around 170 students.